“Many businesses are stuck running digital projects,” Sribar said. “Some of them are very large, but digital projects are not a digital business.”

Executive leaders are frustrated with the slow pace of digital transformation, as they watch competitors capture new opportunities. CEOs are looking to CIOs to create new efficiencies, new value and new ways to engage constituents using technology, quickly.

Two-thirds of all business leaders believe that their companies must pick up the pace of digitalization to remain competitive.

However, digital transformation is nearing a period of intense scrutiny.

“Four years into the digital shift, we find ourselves at the ‘peak of inflated expectations’, and if the Gartner Hype Cycle teaches us anything, a trough is coming. Disillusionment always follows a period of extreme hype,” Sribar said.

“But it’s not just IT jobs,” Caminos said. “There’s been a 60% growth in technology skills required for non-IT roles over the past four years.”

Digital business also requires a new set of attributes and skills that allow you to operate successfully in a continuously changing world, like more frequent complex decision making, continuous problem solving, rapid pattern recognition and exception handling.

Speed Up Your Digital Business Transformation

Build digital dexterity across the organization

Leigh McMullen, managing vice president at Gartner, said CIOs need to model the change themselves first.

“Make IT the incubator for digital talent across your enterprise,” he said. “If you are modelling digital dexterity thinking, behaviors and leadership, everyone else will follow. Some sooner, and some later.”

Top CIOs are already playing digital transformation roles as integral members of the executive team, co-developing a digital business vision and stepping-up to deliver key business outcomes.

McMullen described how financial services firm Capital One has invested in developing and upskilling staff. Its talent program focuses on 13 key technology disciplines such as data, machine learning and AI. It spans diverse talent pools, from non-technical college graduates to executive business leadership, and is delivered via channels that suit the learning styles of the employees.

“Don’t stop inside the IT organization,” McMullen said. “If you want to grow your sphere of influence then you need to unleash digital dexterity across your entire workforce.”